Digital Economic Models – tried and tested to blue sky

August 24, 2011 · 6:30 PM

Photographers' Gallery Office

24 August, 6.30 - 8pm

As the pressure from funders intensifies to find alternative revenue streams – redirecting our expectations from state funding to philanthropy particularly – the Net and digital are enjoying part of the attention as a source of potential answers to our ‘problem’.

The Net has for mass media constituted something of a slow motion train wreck, with the traditional economies and stable revenues of a range of sectors undergoing major transformations, if not outright crises. So if music and newspapers, to name a couple, have experienced digital as a disruptive rather than beneficial force, why should it be any different for the ‘micro media’ of the cultural community?

It might be argued that one significant difference between the output of cultural producers and their mass media counterparts is that culture remains governed by an ethos of uniqueness (the singular, live experience of a performance; the personal experience of an artwork in space), whereas mass media is formatted precisely to be repackagable for its multiple digital destinations. While mass media producers thus render themselves vulnerable to ‘disruption’ from the likes of iTunes or, at the other end of the spectrum, pirates, culture might be regarded as existing in a cordon sanitaire of sorts – safe and, ironically, in possession of something to sell!

For August’s Meetup we propose to divide this discussion on Economic Models into two simple areas: 1) well-tried or proven economic models and 2) more experimental models that are nonetheless advancing in their development, or reaching a state of maturity.

As is known by most of us who work in the cultural sector, these latter areas present risks that are often too high for already overstretched organisations to countenance. The question is, does the ‘austerity’ model of collaborations/partnerships now being promoted by funders genuinely offer more realistic prospects for success?

1) Tried and tested areas(NB – the list below is presented with the caveat that we are all aware eCommerce and ticketing is still a long way from offering smooth and reliable experiences!)

Intellectual property

Online archives – which can be used to drive traffic to other paid content (an example being London Review of Books’ release of its back catalogue archive to drive subscriptions)

Educational lecture series – which can be used to attract people to courses, or as exclusive added value content for course attendees.

Freemium v paid-for content

Donations

Advertising

eCommerce

Ticketing

2) Experimental/advanced areas

Crowdfunding/Crowdsourcing

Micro fan payment – e.g. Flattr, a micro donations service

Flat rate – this is a Collections Agency model for the Net, like Performing Rights Society (PRS) in the UK but for net content

We're about:

Art of Digital London (AoDL) is a public event set up to discuss the influence that the digital is having on cultural engagement. Through AoDL we research how arts organisations are responding to the prevalence of digital use, looking at the tools and practices that are used in the creation, management and distribution of artistic programming.

We centre each event around a particular topic. In advance, we write an event description that contextualises the discussion and acts as a piece of condensed research. On the night, we invite a panel of experts and practitioners to present their projects, thoughts and ideas. This is followed by a Q&A and group discussion. We record all presentations and make them available online after each event as an additional resource. See our Tumblr site with past event documentation: http://www.aodl.org.uk/.

We choose topics that we think are relevant to those working in the arts, and in the spirit of action research these are often issues we have come across in our work that require a solution. Previous areas discussed have include; digital copyright, cultural open data, arts video networks, digital project management, social media and distributed storytelling. Speakers have come from a wide variety of cultural organisations, digital agencies and tech companies - including Caper, Channel 4, Culture Grid, Kaltura, Made Media, National Archives, Sadler’s Wells, Tate and Vimeo.

AoDL is a great way to meet peers in tech/arts. We are not experts, just very curious, and want to create a friendly platform where everyone is welcome and everyone can learn something.

Each event takes place at The Photographers’ Gallery, and is co-organised by Jo Healy, Caroline Heron and Lucy Sollitt.

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